-LRB- CNN -RRB- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has called for a `` religious revolution , '' asking Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism .

In a speech celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muḥammad , which coincided with New Year 's Day , he said they had no time to lose .

`` I say and repeat , again , that we are in need of a religious revolution . You imams are responsible before Allah . The entire world is waiting on you . The entire world is waiting for your word ... because the Islamic world is being torn , it is being destroyed , it is being lost . And it is being lost by our own hands , '' el-Sisi said .

`` We need a revolution of the self , a revolution of consciousness and ethics to rebuild the Egyptian person -- a person that our country will need in the near future , '' the President said .

El-Sisi , himself a pious man , was elected in May after leaving the military to run for the office .

A former defense minister , he led the ouster of Mohamed Morsy -- the Islamist who was Egypt 's first democratically elected President -- and has long positioned himself as a more secular option , and defender against extremist views .

`` It 's inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety , danger , killing and destruction for the rest of the world . Impossible that this thinking -- and I am not saying the religion -- I am saying this thinking , '' el-Sisi said .

He continued : `` This is antagonizing the entire world . It 's antagonizing the entire world ! Does this mean that 1.6 billion people -LRB- Muslims -RRB- should want to kill the rest of the world 's inhabitants -- that is 7 billion -- so that they themselves may live ? Impossible ! ''

While el-Sisi 's speech included some powerful language , H.A. Hellyer , a nonresident fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and research associate at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University , said the President has made similar statements in the past .

`` There is little to suggest -LRB- el-Sisi -RRB- is interested in some sort of Lutheran reformation of Islam . By all accounts , he 's quite comfortable with the prevailing leadership of the Azhari establishment .

`` If anything , he wants to empower it further in order to push forward a counternarrative against radical Islamism . The real question is : How credible can such a state-empowered counternarrative be ? '' Hellyer said .

On Tuesday , the President visited the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo to attend a Christmas mass and make a short speech . He is the first president to attend such a mass since the revolution .

`` We will build our country together . We will accommodate each other . We will love each other , '' el-Sisi said in that speech .

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President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi speaks to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muḥammad

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`` We need a revolution of the self , a revolution of consciousness , '' he says